It didn't have the overall impact of "Born to Run" or Born in the USA;
it didn't contain any major hits; and when it was released, it didn't even sell
as well as the decidedly uncommercial Nebraska. But for Bruce
Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town was a pivotal album: on it he
put aside both the multilayered sound and the mythic cityscapes of its
predecessor, Born to Run and shortened his songs and toughened his
outlook. Darkness was designed, Springsteen has said, to be
relentless, and that's precisely what it is. Focusing intently on
characters who struggle to retain some hope in the midst of situations that
offer none, it was the album that pointed the way toward the Springsteen of
today.

When he made the record, Springsteen was twenty-eight years old, and he had a
lot to prove. Three years earlier he had made the covers of Time and
Newsweek but the ensuing fuss had led some doubters to charge that CBS
Records hype was responsible; then he was prevented from recording a
follow-up album because of a bitter, lengthy lawsuit with his former manager.

When Springsteen finally went into the studio, he was in one of his most
prolific periods. In these sessions he cut songs that other people wound up
recording, songs that ended up on The River, songs that he had been
performing live and songs that never surfaced legitimately. Because they didn't
tell the story he wanted to tell, Springsteen never seriously considered using
sure hits like "Fire" on the album. After months of juggling, he found the
combination he was looking for; one of his last moves was to drop "The Promise"
and replace it with the title track. "Darkness", "Badlands" and "The Promised
Land" were grimly defiant assertions of faith, while "Racing in the Street"
movingly acknowledged that hitting the road - long a favourite Springsteen
image - may exact a heavy toll but in the end it's better than sitting at home
and slowly dying.

"It's less romantic" Springsteen later told one reporter. "There's less of a
sense of a free ride than there is in Born to Run. There's more of a
sense of 'If you wanna ride, you're gonna pay. And you'd better keep riding'."

Afterward, Springsteen hit the road for his first full-scale arena tour, and he
came back a star. It seems odd now to imagine a time when Bruce Springsteen had
to prove he wasn't a hype - but there was such a time, and with Darkness on
the Edge of Town and its subsequent tour, he proved it. All night, and then
some.

Highest chart position: #5
Top Forty Single: "Prove It All Night" (#33)
Total U.S. Sales: 2.4 million